張繼青

简介

Zhang Jiqing was born in 1939 in Wuzhen Town, Tongxiang, Zhejiang Province, and passed away in 2022. Her ancestral roots trace back to Pudong, Shanghai. She began her artistic career in 1952 at the age of 14 when she joined the Minfeng Su Opera Troupe in Suzhou, studying Su Opera and Kunqu under renowned masters such as Yu Caiyu, Yu Xihou, Shen Chuanzhi, Yao Chuanxiang, and Zeng Changsheng, specializing in female roles. She was a first-level Kunqu performer at the Jiangsu Su Kunqu Troupe and a national-level inheritor of intangible cultural heritage. She became widely known by the nickname "Zhang San Meng" (Zhang's Three Dreams) for her celebrated performances of "A Startled Dream," "A Dream Pursued," and "A Mad Dream." In 1983, she won the first Plum Blossom Award for Chinese Theater, topping the list of recipients. She toured extensively in Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Finland, Japan, and South Korea, and in 2000 performed "Zhu Maichen Divorces His Wife" in Washington and New York in the United States. She was also invited to perform and lecture in Hong Kong and Taiwan. She retired in 2004 and devoted herself to training young performers, later serving as artistic consultant alongside Wang Shiyu for the youth version of "The Peony Pavilion" directed by Bai Xianyong at the Suzhou Kunqu Theater. She received the Yasuo Yamamoto Memorial Award in Japan in 1993, the Kunqu Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chinese Ministry of Culture in 2002, and the Chinese American Artists Lifetime Achievement Award in the United States in 2006. She was known for her restrained and profound style in the five dan (young female) roles, and a bold, powerful style in the zheng dan (mature female) roles.